Nintendo
Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂 nintendō; TSE: NTDOY) is a company in Japan, which develops and manufactures their own line of video games and consoles. The name Nintendo means "leave luck to heaven." They are the creator of many popular series, including The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, as well as their most popular series, the Mario series, plus many more. Nintendo's mascot is none other than Mario himself. History The company was originally founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade Hanafuda Cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. Eventually, in 1929, the company was passed on to Yamauchi's Son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda. He took up the Yamauchi name when he married Fusajiro's daughter, Tei Yamauchi. The company continued on to make Hanafuda Cards. However, Kaneda decided to retire in 1949, and passed Nintendo down to his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Little did he know that Hiroshi would change the focus of Nintendo for the best. In the late 70's, Yamauchi decided to expand Nintendo into the United States, as arcade machines were becoming very popular. However, his plan did not go over as well as he had hoped. Many children in the U.S. did not show much interest in Nintendo's products, like Sheriff or Radar Scope. Nintendo started to lose money, so in desperation, Yamauchi turned to one of his employees, Shigeru Miyamoto, for help. He only called Miyamoto in because he was the only employee who had any time on his hands. Yamauchi asked Shigeru Miyamoto to make a product for the arcade machine that would become a best-seller. Shigeru Miyamoto worked on the project he was thinking of for a while. The game was called Donkey Kong. When it entered the North American market, it did in fact become a best-seller. Nintendo started moving into video games, and assigned Gunpei Yokoi to make a handheld console for enjoyment while traveling. Thus, Yokoi made the Game & Watch, which became unusually popular in both Japan and the United States. Nintendo then made the Nintendo Entertainment System, which grew very popular among children, the most popular game being Super Mario Bros. Thus, the video game company players know as Nintendo was born. Aside from video games, Nintendo is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners, a Major League Baseball team, which is now handled by Howard Lincoln. In 2002, Hiroshi Yamauchi stepped down from office, giving the position to Satoru Iwata. Results of Their Work Nintendo is the longest running company in the history of the video game console market and historically the most influential and best known console manufacturer. However, they do have business rival in Sony, Microsoft and formerly their biggest rival, Sega (which is now reduced to Third-Party work). Nintendo, as a video game company, began in the Japanese market in 1983, the U.S. market in 1985, and the European market in 1986. Over time Nintendo has manufactured five TV consoles and nine handheld portables. They have also developed, and published well over 300 games, and have sold over 2 billion games worldwide. Nintendo has also sold very well among other consoles. Yamauchi, when he announced the Nintendo GameCube, stated that people don't buy a console for the console, they buy it for the game they want. He also believes that a video game console should be solely for video games, never anything else, in opposition to the PlayStation 2's built-in DVD Player. These things are why he always makes Nintendo's consoles the cheapest in price, compared to other consoles. If one watches the Nintendo Wii games, and compare it with the NES, they will see just how far Nintendo's gone, from a card manufacturer, one of the richest video game companies in the world. All current official Nintendo merchandise is marked with the Official Nintendo Seal. Originally, the seal was only applied to video games. Appearances in the Mario Universe *In Donkey Kong 64, Nintendo, along with Rareware sponsor the boxing match between the Kongs and King K. Rool. *Nintendo sponsors the Mario Kart series as seen in the ads in the background of courses. *The WarioWare character 9-Volt calls himself "Nintendo's biggest fanboy", and, in fact, his Microgames refer to various Nintendo games and systems. Home Consoles *Color TV Game series (1977-1982) *NES (1985-1994) *SNES (1991-2000) *Nintendo 64 (1996-2002) *GameCube (2001-2007) *Wii (2006-Present) These consoles may have different names in different markets. The NES is known as Famicom in Japan, the SNES subsequently as Super Famicom. In China, the Nintendo 64 was released under the name iQue Player. Handheld Consoles *Game Boy *Game Boy Pocket *Game Boy Light *Game Boy Color *Game Boy Advance *Game Boy Advance SP *Game Boy Micro *Game & Watch *Virtual Boy *Pokémon Mini *Nintendo DS *Nintendo DS Lite *Nintendo DSi Releases of these consoles in China usually replace "Nintendo" in the name with "iQue". Examples are the iQue Game Boy Advance and the iQue DS. See Also *Shigeru Miyamoto *Satoru Iwata *Nintendo World Championships *Gunpei Yokoi External Links *Nintendo official website *Wikipedia *WikiGames's article on Nintendo Category: Companies